Premium Members, click here to access this interview in the premium area.
Melissa Love of The Design Space was a name I kept hearing – all from people in the photography industry I've come to know and trust like photographer and previous interview guest, Nadia Meli, online photography business coach, Julie Christie, creative copywriter Emma Whiley, SEO Expert Corey Potter and photographers singing her praises in different Facebook Groups. That led me to go find out more and chase her up for this interview.
Melissa is a graphic designer, photographer and website developer who works with creative professionals to help them develop a strong brand. Her number one aim is to have you stand out in a crowded market.
She founded The Design Space to help photographers, with their branding and their websites. On the Design Space website, you'll find a large range of beautiful templates, courses to help you define and create your brand and tutorials to help you every step of the way.
In this interview, learn what it takes to create your perfect brand, how to design a website your clients love and you love to work on. You'll also learn what makes a website bad and how to avoid creating a site you don't like to work on and one your prospective clients just don't engage with.
Here’s some more of what we cover in the interview:
What’s on Offer for Premium Members
If you’re a premium member, you should have received an email with links to your version of this interview – the full length and more revealing version where you hear the absolute best tips and advice from every guest.
If you have a kind of oh I can't quite manage, that's when people leave their websites alone for too long and they don't enjoy using and working with it. You've got to enjoy the platform and that's why it is an important choice. – Melissa Love
If you’re on the fence about becoming a premium member, join with the $1 trial today and get access to the FULL interviews each week, get access to an amazing back catalogue of interviews and ALL future interviews delivered automatically to your phone or tablet.
Plus special member-only interviews.
You'll also receive access to the members only Secret Facebook Group where you can connect with other Premium Members and interview guests to help, support and motivate you to take ideas you hear in each episode and put them into action. There are also FB live video tutorials, role play interviews and special live interviews happening in the group.
You will not find more friendly, more motivated, caring and sharing photographers online.
Joining a Mastermind Group (encouraged by Andrew) has been incredibly valuable and fun, I look forward to connecting with my group members every week. Jina Zheng, Premium Member and Melbourne Children photographer.
And that's not all… you get a set of steak knives… I'm kidding!
Seriously though, that's not all. In addition to everything above, you'll get access to and instructions on forming or joining a MasterMind Group with other premium members. These groups are super motivating, make you accountable and build friendships with other pro photographers with similar motives to you – to build a more successful photography business.
What is your big takeaway?
Following this interview, I’d love to know if you're taking anything away from what Melissa shared. Is there something you heard that excited or motivated you to the point where you thought, yeah, I'm going to do that! If so, let me know by leaving your thoughts in the comments below, let me know what your takeaways were, what you plan to implement in your business as a result of what you heard in todays episode.
I think websites look fantastic when you're meticulous about detail, where the design decisions are consistent and carry through every single page. – Melissa Love
If you have any questions that I missed, a specific question you’d like to ask Melissa or if you just want to say thanks for coming on the show, feel free to add them in the comments area below.
iTunes Reviews and Shout-outs
Each week I check for any new iTunes reviews and it's always a buzz to receive these… for a couple of reasons.
Firstly, it's confirmation that I'm on the right track with the interviews and that they really are helping you improve your photography business. That's awesome!
Secondly, iTunes is the biggest search engine when it comes to podcasts and it's your reviews and ratings that help other photographers find PhotoBizX. More listeners means more interviews and ultimately a better show.
If you have left a review in the past, thank you!
If you haven't and you'd like to, head to https://photobizx.com/itunes and you can leave some honest feedback and a rating which will help both me and the show and I'll be sure to thank you on the show and add a link to your website or blog if you let me know the URL of your website and your name.
Alternatively, if you've left a review for PhotoBizX and are looking for more backlinks to help your SEO, leave a review for the new Photography Xperiment Podcast and email me your key words or keyword phrase and where you'd like me to link to.
You know you need to have a plan and I don't start a single project going into the web design stage but until we finish the branding concept. – Melissa Love
Online Photography Sales Made Easy
The Online Sales Made Easy course (name not yet locked in stone) is now available to Premium Members only!
The course has been put together by family and portrait photographer Nick Peel who is averaging $1000 sales – all online.
Yes, the big industry push is towards IPS but there are a bunch of reasons you might need to utilise online selling. That's why I saw such value in putting this together with Nick.
In the course you'll learn:
- how to set up your pricing to lead client naturally to your top package every time
- what to include in your online gallery
- how to set up your gallery and pricing to make it easy for you and clients (video tutorial)
- which shots you need to best sell your top package following every shoot
- what kind of locations will give you the best chance at selling your top package
- why you should never sell individual images
- how to introduce urgency into your pricing which encourages sales
- email and text swipe copy to use in your business
- why you shouldn't use sneak peeks with online sales
- And as they say… Lots more
The course is aimed at portrait photographers, in particular family photographers but there is sction for shooting couples and engagement sessions and selling online to these clients.
The cost is going to be $97.
As usual, there's a money back guarantee – if you're not happy for whatever reason, let me know and I'll refund you. No questions.
Nick and I have worked hard on this and we're both proud of the result and think it fills a need for any photographer who for whatever reason can't or doesn't want to do IPS.
If that's you and you want the best chance of making great online sales following every session, this strategy will do that for you. It's proven and it works.
If you want more details or to be notified when the course is available, add your details here: http://bookmoreportraits.com/
Links to people, places and things mentioned in this episode:
The Design Space Planning Process
Adding an SSL Certificate to Your Website
Episode 227: Nadia Meli – How to Discover Your Photography Voice and Style for True Success
Episode 245: Julie Christie – Make More Money in Your Off Season with Photography Classes
Episode 248: Emma Whiley – How to Create Copy to Drive More Clients to Your Photography Business
Episode 191: Fuel Your Photos – How To Get Found by Your Perfect Photography Clients
Thank you!
Thanks again for listening and thanks to Melissa for coming on and sharing so much about her business, thoughts and tips on branding, website design, copywriting and so much more for todays episode.
When you have consistency of design, it teaches people very quickly how to navigate your website and that's important. – Melissa Love
If you have any suggestions, comments or questions about this episode, please be sure to leave them below in the comment section of this post, and if you liked the episode, please share it using the social media buttons you see at the bottom of the post!
That’s it for me this week, hope everything is going well for you in life and business!
Thanks and speak soon
Andrew
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